Adam Michnik: Putin menaces to entire European Union

Europe should completely change its attitude to Russia’s president.

It’s a conviction of a Polish intellectual, the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza Adam Michnik, Andrea Tarcuini writes in an article of La Repubblica, Inopressa.ru writes.

“Proposals of Putin are dangerous and unacceptable: it is a new Brezhnev’s doctrine on limited sovereignty,” Adam Michnik said. “In the same way as Ukraine does not have a right to dictate laws to Moscow concerning the structure of the Russian Federation, Russia equally has no rights to dictate other countries how there administrative structure should be organized. It is another violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine on the part of Putin. The proposal suggests creation of a second Transdniester, in order to get an opportunity to destabilize and control the Ukrainian state.”

“Putin hopes that the nightmare of a long-term war, anarchy and a risk of Western Ukraine’s defeat would frighten the West and make it accept the proposal. It’s Putin’s strategy,” Michnik believes. He is convinced that long-term strategic plans of the Russian president are to take Ukraine under his control and turn it into a vassal state. “He wants to reconstruct the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union with Moscow in the centre, surrounded by totally dependent provinces and consulates. Together with the Eurasian Union, one can tell about a restoration of the Soviet model. Putin’s doctrine is an adaptation of “Brezhnev’s doctrine” about the right of the Soviet Army to intervene everywhere, where a threat to Socialism exists,” Michnik said, reminding about the invasion to Czechoslovakia in 1968.

“In accordance to Putin’s doctrine, Russia is to intervene there where a threat to Russians exists, and what is meant by such a threat, is to be decided by Moscow. It opens the doors for future wars everywhere, where Russians live: the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, even Finland,” Michnik is convinced. “I do not know whether sanctions can stop Putin, but if we, European and Western states, would not try to stop him, we open floodgates to Russia’s imperial policy and give a signal for approval of a political course aimed at aggression and annexation.”

Michnik recommends “changing the attitude to Putin, who is following the policy of threats to the entire European Union, completely”. “Putin cannot be a partner in the talks: he always wants to act from a position of strength. We should take seriously the issue of providing assistance to Kyiv by all possible means, including military supplies for the armed forces of Ukraine,” Adam Michnik is convinced.